By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 4 Apr: For the first time in the district, the district administration has prepared for strict action against the ‘education mafia’. Following instructions in this regard issued by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, District Magistrate, Dehradun, Savin Bansal has taken a strict stand against private educational institutions. Recently, four big bookstores were accused of GST evasion, not giving bills, and of forcing the guardians to buy unnecessary material, on which strict action has been taken and the shops have been sealed along with registration of FIRs.
A statement issued by the district administration today has claimed that, due to the aggressive attitude of the district administration, Ann Mary School has given an undertaking to reduce the fees by 10 percent, which were earlier increased by 30 percent. The statement also claims that private schools have been forced to go on the backfoot and have agreed to provide relief to the parents.
On the instructions of the CM, the district administration has made full preparations to curb what it calls exploitation of the parents of the children studying in these schools. A core team is keeping an eye on private schools these days. There are strict instructions to follow the rules or else the licence would be cancelled and the schools locked. For the first time in the district, strict action is being taken against the commercialisation of education.
After the bookstores, now private schools are seen on the backfoot. The DM has given strict instructions that fees above the prescribed standard and exploitation of parents will not be tolerated. The DM has warned that, in case a complaint is received from anywhere, strict action would be taken. At the same time, several big private schools are on the radar of the administration.
After the strictness of the district administration, now Ann Mary School has reduced the fee hike. The district administration has claimed that the parents were feeling harassed and submitted memorandums to the DM seeking action.
On the instructions of the DM, a meeting was held with the principals and managers of all the private schools of the district under the chairmanship of the Chief Development Officer and clear instructions were given in this regard. According to the government order, the fee hike can be done only by 10 percent in one in 3 years. Strict action has been threatened if the hike is more than this. It was instructed that the textbooks should be easily available at a low price from any seller in the market, the practice of printing the name of the school on the answer sheets of all the schools should also be abolished, so that parents can purchase the answer sheets from any seller in the open market.
In addition, the schools operating in the district will make available the information of the student uniform prevalent in their school in the open market through their website, so that the student uniform prevalent in their school can be easily available at a low price from any seller in the market. Wide publicity of the logo to be printed on the school uniform would ensure that any seller can easily make the school uniform available at his shop.
All private schools operating under Dehradun district were directed that they would submit the proposal for the fee hike to be done in each academic session to the office of the Chief Education Officer. The proposal regarding fee hike would be implemented in the school in each academic session only after the approval of the Chief Education Officer. Ann Mary School, GMS Road, was directed to immediately limit the fee hike for the academic session 2025-26 to a maximum of 10 percent and ensure that the excess fee charged from the students is adjusted in the fees to be charged in the coming month. The school administration was also directed to make the school RTE compliant.
Regarding the fee hike proposal provided by Summer Valley School, Dehradun, the school administration was directed that, while limiting the fee hike proposed by the school in Class 9, the fee hike should not be more than 6 percent in the current session under any circumstances and the list of text books and information regarding student uniform should also be mandatorily displayed on the school website. St Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun, which was found to be compliant, was also directed not to hike the fees by more than 10 percent in a period of three years.
